Two dead in Mali tourist resort assault

BAMAKO -- Suspected jihadists crying “Allahu Akbar” stormed a tourist resort popular with foreigners on the edge of the Malian capital Bamako on Sunday, briefly seizing more than 30 hostages and leaving at least two people dead.

The assault on the Kangaba Le Campement resort comes after a similar strike less than two years ago on a luxury hotel in Bamako, which lies in the south of the troubled country.

Four assailants were killed by security forces, Mali’s security minister said late Sunday, without specifying if more were on the run.

Nearby residents had first reported the attack after hearing shots while smoke billowed into the air, with at least one building ablaze.

“It is a jihadist attack. Malian special forces intervened,” Security Minister Salif Traore told AFP, adding that two people had been killed, including a Franco-Gabonese.

He later told journalists that “we have recovered the bodies of two attackers who were killed” and were searching for the bodies of two others.

“We were able to rescue around 36 guests and workers from the resort”, including around 15 French nationals and a similar number of Malians, he added.

The special forces were supported by UN soldiers and French counter-terrorism troops.

Mali’s army earlier said that one of the attackers was wounded and gave up his weapon. He also left behind “bottles containing some explosive substances”, the security ministry said.

At least 14 people, both Malians and foreigners, were injured, according to the ministry.

A witness interviewed on local television ORTM said he saw a man arrive on a motorcycle who “started shooting at the crowd” followed by “two or three people” who came in another vehicle.

The landlocked west African country has been fighting a jihadist insurgency for several years, with Islamist fighters roaming the north and centre of Mali.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is scheduled to visit Bamako on July 2 for a meeting with five Sahel countries, “is following the situation very closely,” the presidency told AFP Sunday.